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Hackers, Hacking, Hacks

Posted: October 7th, 2008, 3:19pm CDT by arsgeek

The art of hacking in a technological world is generally a negative thing. To hack into something, usually means a breach in security and some form of data altered. However, hacking, and being particularly skilled at it, can pay off – if the skills are used appropriately.
Shane Kelly, age 16, became the world’s youngest person to pass the Certified Ethical Hacker course. Because of his dedication and precision, there are some big people very interested in utilizing his mad skills.
Hacks can be used for good! Programming something to “hack” into a problem you’re encountering, like with say your website development or network. Hacking can be viewed as a positive thing, and quite frankly, the biggest networks and programs are developed by hackers. You have to know how to get into it to be able to prevent access to it, right?
Now, by no means am I saying that it is okay to hack into someone else’s property, or copyrighted works like programs and applications, but hacking should not always be viewed as illegal. Take those skills and go work for someone who can really benefit from them. Internet companies, software companies, police departments. Fight crime! Slip into your bat-suit and get involved in the criminal investigation sector of a police department. After all, they are likely to more fully utilize your hacking super-powers (and you’d get paid for it).
Celts, Halloween, Newegg deals, GPS, Harvest Moon, new iPods and Radeons on sale

Posted: September 30th, 2008, 8:20am CDT by arsgeek

All kinds of good things on our last day of September. Halloween stuff with a decidedly celtic bent, jewelery of the same, handheld GPS deals, iPod deals, Newegg’s email only sale, Harvest Moon for the Gamecube, Radeon deals and the highest capacity thumb drive ever. Phew!

To get us into the fall mood, Gaelsong has a ton of Celticy themed Halloween stuff on sale. Amazon also has a big sale on Celtic jewelry for under twenty bucks.

Newegg has a huge sale going on for email subscribers and those who click this link featuring all kinds of stuff from their inventory.

For those who feel that all who wander aren’t lost - or wouldn’t be if they had a Garmin eTrex handheld GPS unit this is your lucky day. It’s on sale for $199.99 - $100 off.

If you’re looking for a good old time on a good old system, Harvest Moon Magic Melody for the GameCube of all things is just $17.98 today only. While you’re being entertained, Amazon’s Blu-Ray sale with up to 55% off continues as well.

Amazon is featuring all of the new iPods with some slight discounts on everything but the Touch.

On to the hardware side of things, exclusively at Amazon is the Transcend JetFlash 64GB thumb drive. It’s $189.99 today.

There’s a decent sale on Radeon GPUs with some deals over 20% off. Lastly, they’ve got a system build list up for a pretty sweet do it yourself gaming rig that will be able to handle Duke Nukem Forever without issue.

There you go, at least you have something to look at while you’re waiting for the economy to collapse.

Technorati Tags: deals, celtic, jewelry, gaming rig, hardware, 64 gb flash drive, harvest moon, gps, newegg
Duke Nukem Forever screenshots - Also proof of bigfoot, little green men

Posted: September 30th, 2008, 7:48am CDT by arsgeek

Well look what we have here! This morning two new screenshots for Duke Nukem Forever came across the ether to arrive at my laptop.

They are kind of pretty and shiny in a hard bitten, vaporware sort of way. But wait, could this be the proof that we’re all waiting for? Will DNF be an actual product in our lifetime? I’ll let you decide that while you gaze lovingly at the once familiar mug of our long lost protagonist. Let’s hope that if it is real, it makes a better impression than Spore.

Technorati Tags: dfn, duke nukem forever, pics, screenshot, kick ass and chew bubblegum, video games, vaporware
Lich Kings, fast cars, VAIOs, older Madden, Blu-Ray and non-Blu-Ray. All part of the dreaded Monday.

Posted: September 29th, 2008, 8:42am CDT by arsgeek

Hey it may be Monday but at least this stuff is relatively cheap. Today we have deals primarily from Amazon, with lots of DVDs of Blu and other types, a pre-order special for the Lich King, VAIO clearence items - some up to 36% off, and a $6 video game called Overlord.

Lets start at the movies, since I spent part of this weekend reviewing Mark Hammill in various silver screen incarnations. (Slipstream anyone?) It’s the three for the price of two sale - where you go to that link, checkoff three titles and get the cheapest one for nada. They’re fairly good titles too. You can also save up to 55% on Blu-Ray discs while you’re at it.

If you’re a WoW fan who can’t wait for the Wrath of the Lich King to drop November 13th, Amazon has a neat promo for you. You can pre-order it and they’ll drop ship it to arrive on the release date.

You can grab Madden NFL ‘06 for$6.98 (console version) and GTR Evolution for the PC for $17.99. While we’re talking cheap games, head on over to Circuit City to grab Overlord for the PC for $4.99.

Lastly, Amazon is clearing out a few Sony VAIO laptops with savings up to36% off. Every model available is at least $150 off retail price.

That concludes Monday’s deals.

Technorati Tags: vaio, lich king, wow, video games, deals, DVD, blu-ray
SpaceX did it! Falcon 1 achieves orbit right on target

Posted: September 29th, 2008, 8:10am CDT by arsgeek

From Elon:

Wow, this is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team. The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion — middle of the bullseye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake.

I will have a more complete post launch statement tomorrow, as right now I’m in a bit of a daze and need to go celebrate

This is a pretty great day for any space enthusiast. Another private company has gotten off of this planet. I’m still of the opinion that while NASA’s research and their achievements shouldn’t be overlooked, what is going to get us off of this planet and into a permanent position in our solar system is going to be the private corporations.

This is great news! If it weren’t for the past 4 days being completely cloudy, I’d be staring up at the skies right now. Congratulations to those at SpaceX and all of the folks anywhere who labor and give towards the goal of getting up there.

Technorati Tags: spacex, falcon 1, orbit, space, successful launch, civilian space effort, blast off
How to get package info (including version and dependancies) on just about anything in Ubuntu

Posted: September 25th, 2008, 1:32pm CDT by arsgeek

Do you know how to find out what version of SSH is running on your Ubuntu box? How about what version of apt? Would you like to see what certain packages depend on to run? Or find the MD5 hash for already installed packages?

There’s one easy command you can type to get you this info, and more.

Let’s say you have SSH installed and you want to know all about it. Type:

sudo apt-cache showpkg ssh | less

You should see a whole bunch of info, starting with the version of SSH you’re currently running and ending with dependancies.

Technorati Tags: linux, ubuntu, package info, how to, howto, version, dependencies
It’s Mark Hammill’s Birthday! Celebrate with his Star Wars audition tape, Kurt Russell and Cocknocker!

Posted: September 25th, 2008, 9:56am CDT by arsgeek

In watching these two videos, I find myself wondering what it would be like to be Mark Hammill and Kurt Russell at the time these were recorded. That’s a world where no one had ever heard of Star Wars and Lucas was this guy that made a passable film about cruising around in the 50s.

I’m certain that no one in that room could really conceive of what would happen to the world of entertainment and geekdom when Star Wars made it to the silver screen. The action figures, the payout, the conventions, the ability to play someone called Cocknocker - none of that would have happened.

And Kurt Russell may also be thinking “Wow, I wasn’t typecast for the rest of my life!”

Mark Hammill:

Kurt Russell:

Cocknocker:

Technorati Tags: video, mark hammill, kurt russell, star wars, cocknocker, lucas, scifi, geekdom, shes your sister
Free ice cream, Electronics sale, Jewelry cheaper than normal, The Godfather, GPS and Monster Jam. Thursday’s deals.

Posted: September 25th, 2008, 8:27am CDT by arsgeek

Hello and welcome to Thursday. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times and make sure your straps are securely fashioned as we move through this failing metaphor and get to the deals of the day. The Godfather wants to see you in his office, Monster Jam for the Xbox 360, some expensive notebooks (the old fashioned kind) are a little less expensive, and Celtic Jewelry along with that shiny gold stuff is on sale.

To get us where we’re going, let’s take a look at the Pharos 150 Drive GPS unit looks to be decent and falls just under $100 at a $99.99 price point, with free shipping.

To look good on your way, check out Amazon’s Celtic Jewelry sale with many pieces under $20. And while you’re there, stop by the Gold section for some great deals (on the right and scattered throughout) gold jewelry.

The Godfather - Coppala’s Restoration Set in all of its Blu-Ray goodness is$61.95 today, which is $63.04 off retail price and includes parts I - III.

Ever wanted to drive a monster truck? If you have an Xbox 360, you’re in luck! Monster Jam is just $19.98 - $30.01off retail today only at Amazon.

Lastly at Amazon, Moleskine notebooks are a couple of dollars off. If you like to show off your expensive tastes and neoluddite tendencies by writing in an old fashioned notebook, here you go.

Circuit City has a bunch of online only deals, from HDTVs through games and all the way to cameras.

Now for free food - something as near and dear to me as free T-shirts. First, Cold Stone Creamery is offering free 3 oz. samples in honor of the Worlds Largest Ice Cream Social (WLICS) tonight from 5 - 8 pm local time. While you’re there getting your free ice cream buy something as well that will support the Make-A-Wish foundation. Then, when you finish your dessert first, head on over to TGI Fridays for your free appatizer. Get it by signing up for their Stripes club here. Bill Murray would be proud.

That concludes our deals for the day.

Technorati Tags: deals, free food, godfather, jewelry, blu-ray, xbox 360, monster jam, celtic
“Man goes to court after butt stapled shut” - headline of the month award with bonus for rhyming.

Posted: September 24th, 2008, 12:25pm CDT by arsgeek

Not one, but two respectable news outlets today feature a story about a man and his butt. Unfortunately there’s no happy ending here. It appears that his rectum was stapled shut and he couldn’t defecate for 17 days which turned out to be a real pain in the . . . man’s life.

Hard to stomach, I know so imagine how he feels. Apparently MSNBC was enamored with the Baltimore Examiner’s article and with a slight tweak they spread the news far and wide. The doctor who did the questionable stapling is in court defending his end of the proceedings.

Read on for the original article.

BALTIMORE – A man alleging a Maryland doctor stapled his rectum shut during an operation — causing him to go without defecating for 17 days — took his federal lawsuit to trial Monday in Baltimore.

Ronald Watkins, 64, of West Virginia, is suing Manuel Casiano, a doctor in Frederick County, for allegedly botching a 2004 surgery that left Watkins with permanent bowel problems.

“The reason for suing Dr. Casiano is very simple: His rectum was stapled shut,” said Julia Lodowski, who with attorney Emily Malarkey is representing Watkins and his wife, Brenda.

Lodowski told jurors in U.S. District Court that Watkins now experiences “rectal discharge” and needs to wipe himself between 12 and 15 times a day.

He’s also had to have four “unnecessary surgeries” because of Casiano’s actions, Lodowski said.

The doctor’s attorney, Conrad Varner, said Watkins’ bowels merely became “swollen shut” because of medical problems — not because of stapling.

Varner said Watkins’ habitual smoking — two packs a day — contributed to his bowel problems, because nicotine constricts blood vessels.

Watkins underwent surgery Sept. 8, 2004, for a newly diagnosed rectal tumor, during which Casiano made the mistake, according to his lawsuit against the Foris Surgical Group.

Watkins then complained of increasing rectal pressure, and an inability to pass gas, his lawsuit states.

In a subsequent surgery, Casiano found that Watkins’ rectum was closed because of staples, according to the lawsuit.
“He couldn’t get past the staple line,” Lodowski told jurors.

“How else do we know that his rectum was stapled shut? Most importantly, Dr. Casiano said so.”

A graduate of New York School of Medicine who works at Frederick Memorial Hospital, Casiano has no record of any disciplinary actions, according to the Maryland Board of Physicians.

Watkins’ lawsuit does not seek a specific amount of damages.

The trial is expected to continue for four days.

Hopefully there will be a happy ending.

Technorati Tags: butt, ouch, staple, medical problems